Dreams of the Watchtowers
by Theabraxas
Summary: Retelling of NGE, as crossed over with the new World of Darkness specifically, Mage: The Awakening . May be screwed up. Or am I just pessimistic? Starts off relatively normal. Shinji x Rei. Rating may change. Read and review or the Faceless will get you.
1. Chapter 1

Good day, or night, everyone. Unlike my other stories, this is _not_ a oneshot, or few-chapter story. Hopefully it will be an entire retelling of NGE, but events may intervene. Anyway, the difference between the two is that this is...ahem...A CROSSOVER FANFIC! (DUN-DUN-DUN! *Creepy organ music*) No, please, don't click Back! Yes, you! You right there, with your computer and your mouse! I CAN SEE YOU!

I'm posting this fic here because the second setting is here mainly as just that-a setting. There are still Angels, NERV, all the characters (though a few may have little changes) etc, but on a slightly different earth.

This place is known as the World of Darkness, the new World of Darkness to be precise (there's been a few of them). They all originated as games, pen-and-paper RP games, like D&D (though tell that to their official forums and prepare to be _lynched, _lol_.). _There have been books, PC games and other things for them (well, for the old World of Darkness, not the new, yet.). As for such games they have an extraordinarily good setting and atmosphere. The new World of Darkness (nWoD) is a world where the supernatural is real, a world said to be ours, as viewed through a dark and twisted lens. Scary, huh? Well its not going to be too horrific (save for my writing, which is horror enough for anyone), at least not primarily. It will be listed as General/Supernatural-the nWoD has _plenty _of horror, but those elements won't saturate this fic.

You don't _need _any knowledge of the WoD to read this,as things will be explained as we go in. It might help, though. Mostly this fic will be using stuff from Mage: The Awakening. You guessed it-EVA characters with supernatural powers. Nothing too stupid though-not yet. And the WoD is filled with supernaturals and very cunning mortals (such as the EVA cast here, Gendo Ikari anyone? He needs no powers-he has Scary Shiny Glasses), so kewl powerz for the Children isn't going to be a game-breaker.

Note: New World of Darkness. No Camarilla, Sabbat, Garou Nation, Black Spiral Dancers, Traditions, Technocracy (MIRRORSHADES!) or any other such things will be present here. It is a different world, published by White Wolf after the old one exploded.

These first chapters will be encompassing only small periods of time at first, as it is possible my writing style or whatever is catastrophically bad for this fic, and I may need to rewrite everything. At first this will seem very odd, then very normal (Weird prologue then more-or-less as canon beginning), but it kinda has to be like that. Oh and i'm going to take some time to describe the random UN/JSDF/JSSDF fighting Sachiel, to make sure this chapter isn't boring. I'll update for groovy Eva-on-Angel action ASAP. Please read and review, or I'll send the Faceless to...impose sanctions (Don't ask).

Additionally, some chapters are written in different tenses...um...sorry. Oh, and this is Shinji x Rei, because incest is relative. NOTE: Second Impact occured on the 13th September, 2000.

And now, to set the tone:

"There. Now he's trapped in a book I wrote. A crummy world of plot holes and spelling errors."-Steven Fry, _Futurama_

_*Dons Matter-enhanced flame-retardant suit*  
_

Enjoy! Or not.

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September the 12th, 2000 AD.

It is the eve of Armageddon.

And the figure of a woman stares silently over a cliff of crumbling stone, her booted feet not making the slightest indent on the sparse grass that sprouts from the loosened soil. The gale-force wind fails even to ruffle her perfectly groomed hair, and even the most sensitive nose or ear would have picked up nothing of her presence. Save for sight, it is as if she does not exist.

And then...she comes alive. Her feet squash down the grass. Her dark tresses stream back against the howling wind. Fat raindrops splatter against her oddly smooth cheeks. And through eyes like polished green stones she watches the sun sink to a rich crimson, the dying rays colouring the sea until it is as if a tide of blood slams furiously against the cliffs. She walks slowly, absorbing everything she can, with every sense humanity knows and several of which it knows nothing. She knows what is coming-something of it, at least. And she can feel the momentous weight of the occasion pressing down like gravity in the core of Jupiter. Few of her kind _believe _in the existence of fate. They need no faith to be sure of its existence. To them fate is something quantifiable, controllable, even breakable, up to a point. But there are times when destiny brings it's ponderous weight to bear with such power that even the greatest cannot hope to defy it.

This, she knows, is one of those times.

A lance, a figure of blinding white, a world-shattering calamity and September the 13th. That is all she knows now, although she is learning more. So for tonight she visits those places who's time is numbered, and has many more to see. So with one last look around, she is gone.

And the water rises, becomes bloody even without the sun's dying light to illume it. The cliff crumbles, as does order, peace and in some cases, civilisation. But the human race pulls through the horror of Second Impact and the monstrous wars which follow, and a rare few amongst that sea of mankind know that a war will come again, soon, against beings far more than any mere human. And so rises GEHIRN, which metamorphoses to NERV under the watchful eye of Commander Gendo Ikari. In Japan a great city is built, a city designed as a modern-day fortress, and it is there, in Tokyo-3, that this story begins.

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"Due to the current state of emergency, all of our lines are currently down."

Shinji Ikari sighed, and placed the payphone back into its holder. He would have liked to be annoyed, but could not muster the energy. He would rather be feeling almost anything other than the boredom which had settled over him on his long, eventless trip to this city. Boredom was the time that the memories struck, and he would rather not dwell on such things. Whilst Shinji could more or less cope in his current life, the depression still remained like an unscratchable itch or minor headache...But which at times could spike to unbearable levels.

Shinji was of medium height, with brown hair cut short and dark blue eyes which seemed brown themselves in certain lights. He didn't quite fit most people's physical view of the Japanese or Asians in general, probably due to some European blood somewhere. He's never been bothered enough to check-apathy fits his mind like a glove around a hand. Part of him _knows_ he's going to screw up whatever he tries, somehow-his parents knew he was useless. Why else would his mother have died, or his father abandoned him? Technically Shinji knew he suffered from depression, but that didn't help him fight it. He wasn't useless, from an impartial observer's view. No more than any other teenage boy, anyway. His feelings of self-doubt had little basis in reality; Shinji was brighter than the average, could be funny when he tried and was quite handsome to some eyes. But in a form of self-fulfilling prophecy, his lack of self-esteem prevented him from realising or using these facts to the full.

He looked around, trying to see what kind of city he had arrived in, and was left with an image of _sterility_. The bare concrete buildings looked as though they had been constructed to resist assault, such was their squat, solid makeup. Each street had seemed identical to him in his short wander from the train station to find a phone, each so clean you could probably eat off the tarmac; there was no litter, no cars...And no people_._ The city was empty. And save for the endless cicadas and a strange pounding far away, silent.

Suddenly Shinji was overcome by vertigo, by nausea, by a strange sense of mad _perception_. He swayed, and something seemed to _click _inside his mind...And then a louder _thump_, some mysterious concussion from far away, and he was drawn back to reality. Shinji shook his head. The doctors had told him there was nothing to worry about, but these strange moments unnerved Shinji. There were other things, too-the time he had drifted away whilst walking, and somehow ended up lost...In the opposite direction to where he had been travelling. He tried not to think about that too much.

Shinji sat down. He looked through his bag, but the magazines and books he had brought had been read ten times over in most cases, and would provide little amusement. So he took something else. The first letter, simple and formal to the point that it was impossible to discern any emotion at all behind the words.

_To: Ikari Shinji_

_Come._

_Ikari Gendo_

Another letter had been sent to his carers, some distant relations of his father. That had contained details and an address for Shinji to go to. But Shinji's own...Not even a 'Happy Birthday'. Not that it had _been _especially happy-they had gone through the motions, with a cake and presents (expensive enough to avoid feelings of neglect, though only barely), but there had been little in the way of spirit or cheer. And no party-Shinji had no friends, and few enough acquaintances. Socially he was all but invisible.

The second letter had been the complete oppisite, and Shinji took it from the bag to look at, and though he was guilty to admit it he was interested for more than one reason. The 'letter' had been more of a photo, with words scrawled across it in a hasty hand and a lipstick-administered kiss pressed to the bottom. The woman in the photo was winking playfully, and her stance and clothing showed a figure which could have easily graced the pages of any magazine. Misato Katsuragi, as the words identified the purple-haired woman, appeared to be in the wrong profession.

Something seemed to tug at Shinji's mind-and at his head. Looking up, he sights somebody through the heat haze, the first person he has met since coming here. Short blue hair-_Blue? It must be dyed, like Misato_ crowns the girl's head, and a school uniform covered her body. Her eyes are red. He cannot see them, but he _knows. _As he tried to get a better look, he heard the beat of wings, and turned aside as birds take to the air. He looked back...But the figure is gone.

And then there came a roar, wind ruffling his hair as _something _streaked by, too fast for human comprehension. Then there came explosions, two great concussions which set Shinji's teeth on edge. He staggered in shock, heart beating until he feared it wiould tear out of his chest, and looked up to see a being too bizzare to fully comprehend.

It was huge, fifty metres high at the very least, and it is monstrous. Roughly humanoid with too-long arms, a great skull-mask hid whatever face the beast may have possessed, crimson eyes blazing in the bone-white depths of its face. Gunships hover around the creature like a swarm of mosquitoes around a man, spitting their deadly payload against the monster's enormous form. Such craft have become more common these days, and are well on their way to replacing the helicopter, but attack helicopters are visible too-evidently, every aircraft available has been deployed against this threat.

Their target raised one arm, a great cylinder flowing back from the wrist, and in that moment a great lance of cherry-red light cut across Shinji's vision, seeming to scar his retina with it's intensity. He dropped to his knees, and in that moment a gunship falls, slamming into a building nearby him. To Shinji, it felt like the end of the world. The noise was like the roar of some vicious demon, his eardrums struggled to cope and the falling debris missed him only by faint chance. Shinji curled into a ball and waited for the end.

He was saved by a car. The scream of the brakes caused him to open his eyes, and as he looked up the stench of burning rubber assailed his nostrils. The car looks fast, but that is all he comprehended before the door opens and the driver beckoned.

"Get in!" She shouted, and something in her voice compelled Shinji to obey. The woman seemed familiar, but he couldn't quite place it-until he realised that it was the woman from the photo. She looked different, bedecked in a dark dress and sunglasses, and there is little sign of the playful, carefree woman who had scrawled 'note the cleavage' over her own photograph. Shinji rushed to the car, slamming the door behind him as he looked to the woman.

"Ikari Shinji, right?" She snapped, stomping on the accelerator.

"Y-yeah!" Gasped Shinji, before responding. "You're Katsuragi Misato?"

The woman nodded as the car roared down the abandoned street, leaving the carnage behind amd Shinji considered his next question.

"What...What was that _thing?_"

Misato turned and grinned mirthlessly. "That, Shinji, is what we call an Angel."

Meanwhile in the stronghold of NERV known as the Geofront, the commanders of the forces battling the beast designated as the 3rd Angel watched in mounting horror as their foe strode on through the metal storm opposing it. The depth charges out at sea had failed to turn it back, the tanks and defensive positions upon the shore had been utterly broken and the aircraft currently assaulting the monster were meeting with no success. It was obvious that greater firepower would be needed to have even a hope of turning the beast known as Sachiel back.

A great screen showed Sachiel in all of its terrible glory, utterly unfazed by the dozens of VTOLs swarming around it, cannonfire and missiles impacting against it's matte-black skin like eggs against a concrete wall. The commanding officers of the Japanese and United Nations forces present stared at the unfolding battle with horror on their faces, a horror they all tried to hide with differing success. Behind them were Gendo Ikari and Kozo Fuyutsuki, the Commander and Vice-Commander of NERV. They watched impassively, any emotion well hidden.

There was a sound-messages from the forces moving to combat Sachiel's steady advance towards the Geofront. Hundreds of advanced weapon systems were aimed upon the advancing monstrosity, just waiting for the order to fire.

It is given.

The noise reverberated around Tokyo-3 as the UN, JSDF and the elite forces known as the JSSDF threw their might against the Angel. Upon roads overlooking the city and positions inside it, used by civilians but created specifically to allow maximum firepower to be brought to bear on single targets, a storm of kinetic and explosive death was unleashed. Reinforced VTOL swarms swooped down once more as tanks and MLRS, mortars, howitzers and even coilguns smashed into the creature's body. A flight of bombers dropped their deadly payloads, laser-guided explosives adding themselves to the carnage below as the city's defenders flung nearly every weapon in their arsenal upon the giant in their midst. Sachiel responded with great crimson lances of directed energy, scouring it's foes from the world. The Third Angel strode through the hail of fire with ease, shrugging off the assault with pain and irritance, but nothing more.

In the Geofront, the assorted officers watched in a mix of awe of terror, even as Fuyutsuki murmured something incomprehensible to those not a few feet away.

"So. An AT Field?"

Gendo did not take his eyes from the screen, enjoying the sight of the UN and JSDF raging in impotent fury.

"Yes. The Angels will not be defeated through conventional means."

The officers below have reached an agreement. One placed down a phone, nodding to the others. "Deployment of N2 munitions has been authorised."

Meanwhile, Misato had stopped her car on the outskirts of Tokyo-3, and was peering through her binoculars with curiosity.

"That's odd." She commented. "Why are they flying away like that...Unless...No, no they can't be!"

"Can't be what?" Shinji asked, worried. He was still partly in shock from the whole experience, but he recognised the tone of horror in Misato's voice.

"Shinji!" Misato screamed, flattening herself on top of him, "Get _DOWN_!"

And with a flash which could burn a mans eyes from their sockets, a searing plume of fire rose into the sky.

_To be continued, with more WoDness next time! The next update will be uploaded in precisely about a bit.  
_


	2. Awakening

Hi again. Last chapter had about as much author's notes as it did writing, so this will be short. Hopefully things start to get better now, but time shall tell. If this all completely screws up I might have to delete the story, and try it again when I'm able to do it justice, but I hope it might get better now. Stuff starts getting weird from here on in.

"One...Two...Three!" Shinji and Misato strained against the underside of the car, blown away as it had been by the N2 shockwave. Their feet scrabbled for purchase on the blasted ground.

The car resisted the attempt to return it's wheels to the floor, but after a little while Shinji and Misato's efforts paid off. The vehicle slammed to the ground in the correct position, and Misato turned to Shinji.

"Thanks for the help. You're a useful kid" She spoke fondly. Shinji flushed, and replied:

"Its not a problem. You saved me, after all. Thank you, miss Katsuragi." Misato laughed.

"Call me Misato, Shinji." Then she clambered back into the car.

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Static reflected off Gendo's glasses as he stared at the screen. The EMP from the N2 mine had blinded their videofeed, and now there was nothing to do but wait until it returned online. The generals entertained themselves with congratulations, and spoke of how Sachiel could not have possibly survived. It seemed as though they were trying to convince themselves as much as their fellows.

"It can't have withstood that."

"Nothing can resist an N2 mine!"

"Looks like you don't get a go, Ikari."

Gendo refused to rise to the bait. Just a few more seconds...

The feed returned, and Gendo's mouth curled up into a smile.

Sachiel stood, battered and scorched but unbroken, looming over a barren expanse of rubble. The Third Angel seemed to stare directly at the watching officers, its glowing crimson eyes accusatory. The room was silent, and the horror and disbelief could almost be tasted on the air.

"Target has...Target has suffered light surface damage." Whispered one of the bridge operators, in a fear-tinged voice. The assembled military stared for a few seconds more, then burst into a sea of hysterics.

Gendo continued to smile.

.

"So...My father works here? At NERV?" Shinji asked curiously, staring at the odd insignia on the wall. _Gods in his heaven, all's right with the world._

"You could say that." Misato responded, as they descended the car-sized lift.

"Did he give you an ID?" Misato asked suddenly, causing Shinji to momentarily panic, rummaging around in his bag before finally grabbing it. Misato scanned her eyes over the card, before handing Shinji a file.

"Here, read through this." Shinji's eyes narrowed as he started to read. "So...NERV is my father's work...Does he wants me to do something?"

Misato pretended not to hear.

.

"As much as we hate to admit it, nothing in our arsenal is effective against the target. Therefore, we place this operation in the hands of NERV." The words were spoken in a defeated manner, a resigned one. It was obvious that the various officers had little faith in the mysterious organisation. Gendo rejoiced inwardly, though nothing touched his features. Tempering his victory was the niggling fact that he currently had nobody actually capable of piloting, but time would soon rectify this oversight.

"I understand." He spoke calmly, and something about his deep voice calmed the terror in those listening. Gendo was not a man you wanted as a friend, but the perfect example of a man you wanted around in times of crisis. He seemed a natural leader. But inside, even he had his doubts. Banishing them, he adjusted his glasses and spoke again.

"This is the reason NERV exists. We shall not fail."

.

"Of course he wants me for something." Shinji muttered gloomily. "He wouldn't have called for me otherwise." Misato frowned.

"You two don't get along?" Shinji muttered something which might have been no, and Misato nodded in agreement."Its the same here." Shinji looked at her oddly, but didn't comment.

At that moment the car was bathed in light. Shinji's eyes widened as he looked out over a vast expanse of space, the car switching to rails as the metal floor dropped away beneath it, revealing an enormous drop. At the bottom was a great plethora of buildings, open ground...And a pyramid? Shinji looked around in childish glee, drinking in the sight with enthusiasm, talking to himself as he twisted around, searching for a better view of this whole new world contained within an artificial dome. Misato smiled. He had struck her as so gloomy and depressed-it was nice to see him lighten up. Eventually they left the car on the other side of the dome, entering an elevator. Shinji shook his head as he considered the day so far. Giant monsters, what seemed to be a nuclear weapon, an actual real-life Geofront...Part of him insisted he must be dreaming. He wondered what would happen next.

His thoughts were cut short as the doors opened and a woman stepped partially into the lift. With short-cut blonde hair and a labcoat, she seemed to embody the stereotype of 'sexy female scientist'. She was also quite obviously annoyed. Misato laughed nervously as the woman glared at her, raising her hands as if to ward the woman off.

"Aah, Ritsuko..."

"Don't give me that, Misato. You are over twelve minutes late." she spoke icily, and Shinji could hear the italics clicking into place. "We have neither the time nor the manpower for you to go dilly-dallying, Lieutenant Colonel Katsuragi."

Misato hastily apologised, to which the woman gave a long suffering sigh. Then she turned her eyes to Shinji. "This is the boy, I take it?" Misato nodded.

"Dr. Ritsuko Akagi, First Engineering Division and head of Project-E. I'm pleased to meet you." She spoke in a friendly tone. Shinji nodded.

"Um, yeah...I'm Shinji Ikari. P-Pleased to meet you."

Shinji's mind was working in overdrive as he and Misato followed Ritsuko further into the depths of NERV. His eyes were working on overdrive too, alternating between the rears of the two women. Pervert Shinji told himself, but his eyes seemed to move of their own accord. So he gave up trying to stop them.

Finally they came to a darkened room, the lights of the corridor failing to illume it's contents. Ritsuko closed the door behind them, shutting off Shinji's sense of sight completely. His other senses immediately seemed to flick to overdrive as he tried to imagine where they might be. All he knew was that he was getting a feeling of vast size.

And then the whispering began.

His ears picked up no noise, but he sensed them nonetheless, unintelligible but certainly present, like psychic background noise. Shinji twitched, wondering what on earth could cause such an effect, and as he did a great burst of light caused his eyes to clamp shut. When he finally adjusted to the harsh, dazzling floodlights which lit the room, he tentatively opened his eyes. And immediately wished he hadn't.

_The lock to the first key is here. _The voices spoke as one, in a voice identical to Shinji's own. But even voices in his head were no match for the spectacle which filled the giant-room? No. Hangar.

Before him was a gigantic construction, a thing of green and purple which reared far above he and the adults. It took a moment or two for Shinji to realise that he was looking at a head. The head of some monstrous being, easily the size of the beast they had seen outside. It's eyes were empty slits, its mouth seemingly fused together until it looked like the thing was grinning. A vast purple horn jutted from it's head, and as Shinji's eyes travelled up it he faintly heard Ritsuko speaking in a lecturing tone.

"These Evangelions are mankinds final-" But Shinji wasn't listening. His attention was on the man who stood behind the great window above the creatures mighty skull.

"Its been a while." Toneless. Emotionless. As always.

"Father." He looked away, unable to keep his gaze on the man who had cast him away so long ago. He felt sick.

"Move out." Gendo spoke again, earning a gasp from Misato.

"What? Unit-00 is in statis! We can't-" Misato's voice changed. "No...Don't tell me you plan to use Unit-01."

It was Ritsuko who replied, the friendliness gone from her voice. "We have no choice, Misato." She turned to Shinji. "You will pilot it."

"What?" Shinji spluttered, shock and disbelief piling up inside him. The voices began to whisper: _Yes. Yes, pilot it. You are shackled, and only by the Evangelion will you gain the strength to open your eyes_. Shinji turned to Misato. The purple-haired woman's face was pained, but she took a deep breath and whispered, in a voice which brroked no discussion:

"Get in."

Shinji shook his head, and his emotions swirled into a maelstrom. Despair and incredulity, confusion and shock and anger. Anger at his father for asking this of him, at Ritsuko and Misato for supporting him, for the voices egging him on and at this EVA and Angel for merely existing... Anger became fury as the voices shouted louder. Voices. Inside his skull. _I'm going mad _Shinji thought frantically. _This-this can't be happening. You don't get things like this-a robot or creature so big is impossible! And if you did then you wouldn't get a kid to pilot it! And these VOICES! This is like some stupid story! No! TWO stupid stories, thrown together by some talentless third-party hack! THIS CAN'T BE HAPPENING!_

Shinji never realised he had shouted out loud, but Misato and Ritsuko recoiled backwards at the outburst. "Shinji" Misato laid a hand on his shoulder, "Shinji if you don't, if you don't get in this-"

"NO! This is why you wanted me, isn't it father? You just need me for something! You don't give a damn about me or you wouldn't have abandoned me in the first place! Well you can FORGET IT!" He shoved Misato's hand away, then fell to his knees. Somehow he had known something like this would happen. Not like this, of course. But part of him had known his father wouldn't have sent for him for some joyous reunion. And to top it all off..._Get inside! Open your eyes! GET INSIDE! Do you want your father to see you as worthless? NO! So get inside the EVA!_

"SHUT UP!" Shinji screamed. "ALL OF YOU! PLEASE!"

Gendo just stared dispassionately, but inside he was worried. He had prepared for Shinji being unwilling-wheeling Rei about would be perfect for dealing with that-but a complete nervous breakdown? He turned to Fuyutsuki. They had only one option left.

"Deploy Rei."

Fuyutsuki stiffened, but he knew there was no other choice. No choice at all really, the injured First Child had no hope of defeating Sachiel. But they had to try. Rage against the dying of the light, or so the poem went. So he just whispered:

"Can she function?"

Gendo turned to him. "Can she breathe?"

Shinji shook as he rocked back and forth on the cold metal floor, tears rolling down his cheeks. He didn't hear the door open, didn't notice the gurney rolling forward over the stainless steel floor. But he noticed when the world shook.

"The eight armoured hull has been breached!" The cry came from far away. But Shinji couldn't hear-strangely enough the voices had vanished, but he remained deafened by the weight of his own misery, incapable of comprehending the shouts all around him. And then one shout cut through the chaos like a knife. A voice he had never heard, not Misato or Ritsuko or even Gendo, but a girl's voice, letting out a painful, whimpering cry. He looked up through sheer confusion-there had been no girl- and felt as though his heart had stopped.

_Its her_ he thought crazily. _The apparation. She's real._ She lay spasming by the gurney she had arrived in, bandaged and broken and crying with pain. He rushed to her side, immediately cradling the trembling young woman in his arms. She gazed at him sightlessly, writhing in agony. Shinji felt one hand growing wet. Lifting it to his face, his eyes widened at the blood which dripped from his fingers. He picked her up as gently as he could, grimacing slightly. She was slender, but suprisingly heavy for her thin build. Shinji found himself wishing he had paid more attention to PE lessons, but the thought was useless here. He placed her back onto the gurney before looking up once more at the great head above him. _I can't let her do this. She'll die. I must not run away._ _I must not run away. __I must not run away._

"I'll do it! I'll pilot it! I'll pilot the Evangelion!"

.

Sachiel stalked forward at a leisurely pace. There was nothing they could do to stop it, now. The flying things had been annoying, the combined assault painful and the explosion that came last agonizing to the Angel, but now the Lilim were defeated. There was nothing they could do to stop Sachiel reuniting with the Father. So the Angel took its sweet time, long arms dangling by its sides as it approached the hole it's beam had punched into the geofront. And felt...something. **_Kin _**Sachiel thought insofar as it could, **_yet not-kin_**. It halted, ready to fight in case the thing was dangerous.

The road in front of Sachiel suddenly opened, a hidden door drawing back as Unit-01 was catapulted to the surface of Tokyo-3. With a concussion which shattered windows, the Evangelion landed on the concrete, splitting and smashing it with it's weight. Sachiel stared. The Lilim have made a mockery of us it thought, an emotion which roughly translated as anger rising within itself. **_The abomination must fall._**

Shinji stood stock still, as well as he could in the orange liquid which filled the entry plug. It soaked into his clothes and shoes, and Shinji grimaced with every breath at its bloodlike taste. Voices drifted over from the radio.

"Alright Shinji, you're doing fine. Now, just concentrate on walking!" Ritsuko's voice, clipped and calm. Shinji did his best to obey, and step by ponderous step Unit-01 stomped forwards.

But concentration only went on so long, even in the best of conditions. Shinji's mind drifted for a split second, but that was all it took. Unit-01 crashed to the floor, Sachiel advancing with great, confident strides. Shinji looked up into the being's crimson eyes, icy terror clutching at his heart. Sachiel's hand grabbed Unit-01 by the face, lifting it high into the air. Shinji kicked wildly to no avail, bringing one arm down towards the creature's head, but Sachiel's own arm caught him just past the elbow, and twisted. Shinji screamed as the pain stabbed through him, looking down wildly at his own arm, immersed in the LCL.

"Shinji, calm down!" Misato's voice yelled over the radio. "It isn't your arm! You aren't hurt! Fight it, Shinji!" But it was to no avail. Sachiel let the arm go limp before glaring up into what passed for Unit-01's face. Then the beam stabbed forward at point-blank range, once, twice and three times before the fourth impaled the EVA and flung it back against the buildings. Shinji screamed in unbearable agony, the phantom pain tearing at him like a thousand knives, and then went silent. Sachiel's energy lance retracted, and the Third Angel lowered its arm. Unit-01's head slumped forward, a torrent of blood pouring from the wound.

.

Shinji opened his eyes.

_Where...?_ He rose to his feet from where he had lay upon the blasted earth, looking around in confusion. He was met with a scene from nightmare.

Lifeless dirt and rock stretched as far as the eye could see, reaching to the horizon in all directions. Above him loomed a great ceiling of darkened rock, a ceiling which rose hundreds of metres but paradoxically still invoked claustraphobia. The inhabitants were even worse. A great throng of misshapen monsters, they whooped and gibbered around him, yelling in a language he did not understand. But the meaning of the words still imprinted themselves on his brain, even if his ears were unreceptive.

**Pathetic**, they cried. **Useless, worthless child. You would walk the Path of Scourging? You? Stupid boy, men and women far beyond you have failed on this road. You must be master of yourself before you would master others, but you are enslaved by your pitiful derangements. Just die now and save the world a bother.**

_Path of Scourging?_ Shinji thought wildly,_ Mastering others? What are they talking about?_ This provoked a laugh from the creatures, as if they could hear his thoughts. **But we can** the creatures hissed inside his skull. **We see your mind peeled clear, Ikari Shinji.**

Shinji tried to get a better look at the creatures, but whenever he tried they slipped away, his eyes scrabbling for purchase on their bodies like hands around a greased glass pole. One seemed to be a mixture of the Angel and Unit-01 from what little he could see, but as he looked it slithered away to be replaced by a cackling, blue-haired monster with gnashing mandibles. He stared at that, but then it too was gone, replaced by first one then another mad spawn of nightmare. Shinji shook, then tried to look away, to find anything save these monsters. _I'm hallucinating _he thought. _I'm dying and imagining things. Or maybe the Angel killed me, and this is hell._

He cleared his eyes, and something seemed to pull his vision. A great tower composed of some dark metal seemed to fill his line of sight. Shinji took a tentative step towards it, and the nightmare-spawn followed, always keeping a few metres away whilst flinging their insults. Shinji walked, then ran, then walked again, but no matter how he moved the tower stayed away. Had he moved at all? There was nothing to judge movement off, save the monsters. _Daemons _a voice whispered. _Not monsters or nightmare-spawn, but Daemons._ Shinji didn't care what they were. At last he gave in, slumping down on the ground.

**Giving up so soon? You're even more pathetic than we thought. How did you get here, in any case? A cowardly whelp like you should have stayed in sleep.**

_Oh, shut up_ Shinji thought. His eyes remained fixed on the tower in the distance, and as he stared his memories started pushing at the back of his mind. Not depressing memories, but...other things. Things he had tried to forget._ I drifted off...And found myself lost in the opposite direction. _He remembered, now. That had been the stirring of a sleeping mind, but here...He concentrated, and space warped. His hands touched the cold iron that made up the tower door, a jolt running up his spine. Shinji stood and pushed the door open, grimacing at the resistance.

Inside was quiet, the yelling of the Daemons completely silenced as the door slammed shut behind him. The room he stood in was bloodstained, filled with manacles, iron maidens and other instruments of torture, all encrusted with dried blood. Upon the walls was writing in a host of different alphabets, literally carved into the iron. What must have been thousands of names were written on the walls, and as Shinji looked up the tower seemed to go on forever, the writing following as far as his eye could see. Names, in Japanese and Chinese, in Arabic, English and in scripts he could not recognise, more than any man could count. Shinji slumped into an uncomfortable chair, one he could not remember being there before. He suddenly felt tired, in a way he had never done before. Giant robots? Angels? Hordes of Daemonic namecallers? Just about every certainty and sanity in his life had been more or less destroyed.

There was a lump in his throat. _I'm dying_ he thought._ I remember that beam going through my head...This is hell. I'm dead, and this is hell._ He broke down. Tears flowed freely down his face as he cried out every pain in his heart, every memory recalled in perfect detail. The death of his mother. The abandonment of his father. The apathetic nature of his carers. And every vicious thought, every horrible, selfish memory, all cascaded from his mind faster than he could say them, until he was less speaking and more just babbling as the tower absorbed his thoughts.

And then, at last, he was clean. The memories remained, but he felt slightly better, somehow. Not cured of his depression or purged of his failings, but every mental knife cut slightly less. Shinji looked up, saw the implements which passed as furniture cleansed of the blood which had caked them, and his eyes locked to the wall. To one particular name, cut smoothly into the iron.

Shinji Ikari.

Something flooded into his heart. Something so uncommon to him as to be alien, something he had not felt for almost as long as he could remember. Confidence. Maybe he was a failure, maybe not. He was predisposed to say yes, but time would tell. And there was one thing at which he would not fail, not if it killed him.

The Angel.

His perception spread out, to encompass the tower and the lands around it. Then mad visions- more towers in more lands, the earth and _another _earth, within and around it. And between the tower-place and the earths, a great abyss. A gash in the universe, a monstrous barrier of chaotic non-existence. He drank in every aspect of the insane diagram which bloomed within his mind, then turned his gaze back to the tower, to his body, to the limited senses of his physical self. He rose his left hand, the hand which still blazed from phantom pain, and stared at the iron gauntlet which seemed to have fitted around it. The hand curled into a fist.

And then he was gazing at the clenched fist of Unit-01, the arm somehow restored to full function. The confidence blazed inside him as the EVA roared-_the EVA? It has a mind?_ Shinji thought wildly, as it roared, snapping the binds which fused it's mouth, and launched itself at the skull-masked beast before it. Unit-01 leapt into the air, Shinji riding the wave of the construct's fury, bestial rage and human intelligence combined. Before it had been like walking on stilts. Now, piloting the EVA was like wearing a suit of mobile amour. The EVA slammed into Sachiel feet-first, leapt back off it and rushed in again.

But then Shinji found himself staggering backwards, lights flashing in front of his eyes. A great, orange, hexagonal field stood between him and Sachiel, one wihch he instinctively knew would block any attempt a assault. But Unit-01 knew what to do. The Evangelion's fingers seemed to find purchase on the transparent barrier, straining to rip it apart. Shinji stared into Sachiel's glowing eyes. He was frustrated, his entire body aching to tear at the beast's Angelic flesh. _If only I could strike from here..._ Shinji did not truly understand what he did next. Somehow he took his frustrations, his pain and his rage and the terror which still lurked far beneath the surface of his mind, and gathered them together. Then with a snarl of hatred he threw the spiky ball of psychic agony forwards.

Sachiel's eyes widened, and with a great screech the Third Angel staggered back. Taking advantage of it's pain, Unit-01 tore the orange hexagon with a single great effort, before human and EVA both propelled themselves forth. Shinji landed a vicious kick to the red orb on the Angel's chest, sending it crashing backwards before following along the furrow it's fall had made. Sachiel rose quickly and put up one hand, another beam of light lancing forwards. Shinji leapt to one side, knowing that it would not be enough. But as it approached him, the beam _twisted_. Like watching light shine through water, the bolt of energy bent ever so slightly, turning what would have been a strike to Unit-01's side into a complete miss.

Then Unit-01 leapt once more, striking viciously at Sachiel's head as it slammed into the ground. Sachiel grabbed Unit-01's arms, and the two struggled desperately, Shinji carried away in the EVA'S bloodlust. Then a thought came to him-Unit-01 was a powerful fighter, but it was brutal and thoughtless, a raging beserker. He however could be cunning. Throwing the Eva's body back, he ducked his head until the horn was touching Sachiel's neck before throwing himself forward. Sachiel went flying and he followed, the great horn taking the Angel through the throat as the EVA's teeth bit down. The two crashed through buildings, shattering steel and concrete with every move. Finally they rose, Unit-01 rising first. Shinji punched his enemy in the face, causing it to sway before striking back with vicious blows of its own. But Sachiel's strikes were off-target, as if striking an enemy standing half an EVA's pace to the left. Shinji blocked them with ease before kicking it between the legs. Unfortunately Sachiel lacked genitals, but doubled over nonetheless.

With a great force of effort Shinji stepped back, fighting the EVA's bloodlust all the way. Punches were all well and good, but with a weapon...

_Ka-Click._

Shinji looked in shock at the knife now held in Unit-01's hand, considering how it could have got there. But Sachiel brought such speculation to an end. The black hand punched forwards, but even standing still it barely struck. _Is it drunk, or something?_ Shinji wondered, after cursing as the blow sent him reeling backwards. Then as Sachiel advanced he charged. Ducking beneath the swinging arms, Shinji brought the knife slamming into the glowing orb which graced the Angel's torso. It cracked as the knife was rammed up to the hilt, before another massive screech sounded out. Sachiel seemed to elongate, wrapping itself around Unit-01 despite Shinji's struggles to remove it. _What the hell is it doi-_

The assembled staff of NERV watched in awe as the Angel self-destructed, the great fireball dwarfing even the previous N2 detonation as Sachiel was wiped from the earth. A great beam punched into the sky, a coruscating crimson lance which mutated into a cruciform shape as they looked on. All was silent save for their worried breathing as Unit-01 slowly emerged from the firestorm which covered the battleground, each wondering if maybe their own weapon was not as monstrous as Sachiel itself. All save two. Gendo Ikari smirked triumphantly. _Just as planned._

Another figure began deep breathing exercises in an effort to calm down. _Well you could have picked a better time to Awaken, Third Child._

_  
_TBC.


End file.
